Backyard History

Said to be home to spirits, pirates’ buried treasure, and a trapped ghost ship..

https://backyardhistory.ca/articles/f/the-mysterious-isle-haute

They had no idea the stranger who had come to Bathurst was an escaped Nazi Prisoner of War waiting for a U-Boat to get him..

The story of one of the most famous rum running schooners that was sunk during an epic pursuit in the 1920s

Lobster. From pauper to proper. A history.

The North American lobster is now a staple of high-end restaurants, and a cultural icon in the Maritimes and New England, but this was not always the case.

At one time lobster was considered a paupers’ food, something people were embarrassed to be seen eating because it showed that they were poor. It was fed to prisoners and slaves, used as fertilizers in fields, and feed for pigs.

At one point servants would stipulate in their contracts that they could not be fed lobster, just to avoid having to eat the hated shellfish. 

https://backyardhistory.ca/f/from-pauper-to-proper-the-story-of-lobster-in-the-maritimes

Here’s a question for a hot Summer day: did early Maritimers go to the beach?

https://backyardhistory.ca/articles/f/the-history-of-going-to-the-beach

The first people to ever walk all the way across Canada were Cape Bretoners who did it because someone bet them they couldn't.

https://backyardhistory.ca/articles/f/the-first-people-to-walk-across-canada-did-it-because-of-a-bet

In only two hours massive fire completely destroys bustling Campbellton.

At 2pm on July 11th 1910 Campbellton was a prosperous town of 6000 people on New Brunswick’s North Shore. Two hours later it would be completely destroyed in a massive inferno.

But it doesn't break the spirit of the people and they rebuild within a year.

https://backyardhistory.ca/popular/f/in-only-two-hours-campbellton-burned-to-the-ground

The true story behind the chilling ghost story.

Around Maritime campfires we tell the tale of the Dungarvon Whooper – a macabre ghost story of a cook who was murdered for a bag of money, and who haunted the forests making screaming noises that sounded like whoops.

https://backyardhistory.ca/popular/f/the-dungarvon-who

A grey mist hung over the land which the rain never cleared. Snow fell in June and July. Frost came in August. Crops didn’t grow. The spectre of starvation hung over the Maritimes.

One year Summer never arrived in the Maritimes, earning that miserable year the nicknames; The Poverty Year; Eighteen Hundred and Froze To Death, and The Year Without A Summer.

https://backyardhistory.ca/f/the-year-without-a-summer

If you think Maritimers drink a lot today, wait till you hear how much earlier generations of Maritimers drank!